The Wall Street Journal’s blog reported that were it not for the aging population, the drop in the nation’s home-ownership rate would have been even steeper during the last decade since rates continued to erode among young people, according to a new data note from Fannie Mae.
The home-ownership rate fell between 2000 and 2010 by 1.1 percentage points to 65.1 percent, although it remains high on a historical basis, according to the Census Bureau. But Fannie Mae found that drop would have actually been 2.8 percentage points without the population shift toward older people, who had modest or almost no drops in ownership rates. (To determine the rate, the Census looks at the percentage of owner-occupied housing units to all occupied units.)
The disparities between ownership rates for the young and old extend beyond the boom and bust of the last decade. Fannie Mae pointed out that since 1980, rates for 25-34 year olds and 35-44 year olds have declined by 9.6 and 9 percentage points, respectively. This contrasts with the rate for households age 65 and above, which increased 7.4 percentage points during that stretch.
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